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Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling Now Set to 'Drive'

by Ethan Anderton
February 10, 2010

It's almost been an entire year since we last heard about the adaptation of James Sallis' novel Drive, which centers on a Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver in heists. At the time, Neil Marshall was going to be directing Hugh Jackman in the action flick, but now Empire reports that writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson) will be helming the adaptation with Ryan Gosling in the driver's seat of his first action movie. Refn said: "Hopefully next is a movie with Ryan Gosling at a studio in America. It's called Drive, and it's about a stuntman by day, a getaway driver by night." Sounds like that's the right one.

Though the concept in logline form sounds a bit generic, here's a better summary of the story from Amazon:

In 'Drive,' [Sallis] combines murder, treachery, and payback in a sinister plot resembling 1940s pulp fiction and film noir. Told through a complex, cinematic narrative that weaves back and forth through time and place, the story explores Driver’s near-existential moral foundations while revisiting its root cause: his hardscrabble, troubled childhood.

Of course Refn has become quite the busy man in Hollywood. Valhalla Rising is finally getting released by IFC Films later this year, and he's also got Jekyll with Keanu Reeves still in the works, not to mention a western and a heist film sometime down the line. But if Refn says Drive is next for him, then I guess we're inclined to believe him. Seeing Gosling in this kind of role will be quite out of the ordinary since he's mostly taken on dramatic roles, and Refn will certainly bring out the best in him as an actor, that's for sure. So if all goes well, it sounds like we'll have a fresh director and new action star on a pretty cool story. Interested?

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